Kuragari
by Razell
Summary: A young demigod searches for a killer. Rated for graphic descriptions of a corpse.
1. Chapter 1

Kuragari

He heard a shifting in the darkness, but no heartbeat. No breathing.

So it _was_ undead.

And it reeked of dried blood.

Kuroyama Yahiko felt a twinge of fear. Rationally he knew that he had nothing to fear from a zombie, if that was what it was, but his kinemortophobia ran deep. Fortunately this was no zombie, he was certain of that. It was too cunning, to elusive for a mere animated cadaver. The killings were more indicative of an insane illithid than a mindless undead. The descriptions of the victim's remains gave him a good idea of what he was facing, impossible as it seemed. The half-oni demigod narrowed his green eyes. He could see well enough in the darkness, but was unfamiliar with the city. It was hiding. Perhaps it wasn't hungry. Perhaps it was afraid.

Perhaps he should be afraid of a being that could single-handedly terrorize an entire illithid community without leaving a witness. They had, in fact, deserted this entire section of the city. He thought ominously of the _Zin-carla_ and how the vile, insane drow matron Malice Do'Urden had, through the dead weapons master Zaknafein, slaughtered most of the inhabitants of the illithid city of Phanlinksal. That had been before Yahiko had even been born. _Zin-carla_ was highly unlikely, such a horror would have claimed far more lives by now and he was unsure that the spell could even be cast now that Lolth had met her just reward.

Up against the like of a Zaknafein or Drizzt even a demigod had cause to fear.

Yahiko had been traveling the Underdark, preaching his doctrine of Unity and peaceful coexistence when he had heard of the illithids' plight. He had offered to help. After all, illithids were a part of _The Unity of All Things_ as well. He was also curious as to what manner of creature was behind such gruesome killings. _And_ solving their problem might make them more receptive to his message. But he doubted it. Illithids as a rule believed in a form of Unity. All other races were equal in their eyes. Equally _inferior_. 'All that is not illithid is thrall.'

He suddenly recoiled at the sight of a corpse lying upon the cold stone floor. It was a thrall, an abandoned victim of the mystery killer. The illithids were too afraid to recover even illithid corpses from this sector of the city. In life he had been a duergar, a gray dwarf. The back of his skull was shattered, the brain crudely torn away. Yahiko gagged at the scent and sight of decay. He said a hurried _Blessing_ for the poor wretch's soul before _Disintegrating_ the corpse.

He had little idea of what he would do when he actually found what he was looking for. The creature had killed four illithids and an unknown number of slaves. The illithids didn't care much about the slaves, which pained Yahiko, but he could not change the dietary requirements of mind flayers. They acted according to their nature. It was how they had been created. His only request for this service was that twenty random thralls from the 'feeding pens' be freed into his custody. The illithids would release no more and he did not have the heart to choose himself who would live and who would die.

He saw it from the corner of his eye just before it attacked. The lean form leaped from the darkness and clutched at his kimono as its dry tentacles slapped him in the face with blows that would have killed a less powerful creature. It tried to climb his clothing, grasping painfully at his long white hair. Yahiko's emerald eyes shimmered and the creature fell back, cowering.

It was not in any way decayed, much to Yahiko's relief. He looked it over in fascination. The creature was familiar yet alien at the same time, it was a little over six feet tall, a full three feet shorter than Yahiko. A naked, filthy illithid with gray skin drawn tight over lean muscle and sharp bone. Its nails were long and cracked. Its skull was smaller than that of its living kin and its tentacles, dry of the acid that living mind flayers used to eat through flesh and bone to reach the tasty brain beneath, were unusually long and thick. Between its quivering mouth tentacles two long, sharp fangs were visible among the normal rasping teeth of a mind flayer.

A _Vampire Illithid_.

He'd been right. How such a creature could exist he did not know. But here it was, at his very feet.

He locked eyes with the strange being, trying to _Charm_ it. To calm it down. He had nothing against intact undead and didn't want to torment the creature.

It didn't work.

It fled into the darkness. He remembered belatedly that undead were immune to _Charm_ spells. He had never tried to _Charm_ an undead creature before. In fact, he had almost no experience with undead of any kind. Yahiko chose to pursue, after all, he had offered to help the illithids stop this creature. He had no desire to harm it, however. He hoped to reach its mind, convince it of his peaceful intentions. The sounds of his wooden geta striking the stone floor echoed throughout the darkness as he passed abandoned stone dwellings and intricately carved columns. Finally, he cornered it. It crouched, hissing, terrified, ready to defend itself. It lashed out with a _Mind Blast_, but it had no effect on the demigod.

Yahiko tried to cast _Resurrection_, but nothing happened. Had it always been dead? Or was he just too weak to accomplish it? Perhaps he was doing it wrong.

He reached out with his mind and entered the vampire's thoughts. It was completely feral, no more than a cunning animal. A cornered, frightened animal. A creature of instinct and incredible hunger. He caught vague glimpses of a hellish realm where lightning fell like rain upon cracked, barren ground. The rest was shrouded in mist. Its mind was completely alien, even when compared with its living kin. Everything was vague and beyond his comprehension.

Still, he wanted to help this creature somehow.

He cast _Miracle_. The creature calmed and stood upright. "That's right, I'm a friend." The creature stared blankly at him. He had calmed it and gifted it with an ability to think, but it lacked knowledge and experience of any kind. It was little more than a blank slate.

Yahiko was growing tired. He was only a demigod, and these powerful spells were draining him terribly. He cast one more spell and removed the vampire's raging hunger. He then sat against a pillar, exhausted. The vampire scurried to his side. It had imprinted on him.

"I think I'll call you Kuragari-san." Yahiko said softly

Yahiko began to contemplate the nature of the creature. Obviously, it could not tell him its origins, as it did not even know where it had come from or what it was. Yahiko suspected the easiest way to create an illithid vampire would be to simply restrain a vampire, (though how one would prevent it from turning to mist and escaping eluded him), and implant them with an illithid larva. At ceremorphosis, the larva would presumably be 'born' a vampire, just like its host. As for where it had come from, he could only hope he'd never find himself there. He realized that he would have to find a means to 'allow' Kuragari access to holy sites if he were to live in The Obsidian Palace. Perhaps if he openly welcomed it into his home. . . And holy symbols would pose a concern as well. . .

He decided to pray to the gods for guidance.

After the initial sounds of a scuffle and running, the illithids waited for several hours, assuming, naturally, that the orange-skinned giant was dead. Not so. _Two_ figures walked out of the darkness. The illithids recoiled in shock and horror as Yahiko and his new servant emerged from the shunned area. "I found him." He said calmly, "Though I have no idea where the hell he came from."

The mind flayers were truly terrified and disgusted. "You didn't destroy it?" Illithids had a natural loathing of the undead, especially among their own kind, and this particular undead had slain a number of them already.

"He's harmless now. Don't worry, I'll take him with me when I leave." He got the distinct impression that the mind flayers wanted him to leave _very_ quickly.

Taking on the responsibility of caring for Kuragari would derail his missionary tour for the time being. He could not very well continue his preaching with a vampire illithid by his side. His message was already an unpopular one and such a terrifying companion would frighten away all but the heartiest of potential proselytes. Besides, Kuragari needed to be cared for until he could function at some level. He would return to The Obsidian City to care for his new charge.

After acquiring clothing for Kuragari, (and the thralls he had been promised), he left the illithids behind. At least, the _living_ ones.

The End.

Notes:

_Kuroyama Yahiko_ is an OC. He is from Kazakura, the island chain on Toril that is based upon Feudal Japan, and is the son of an oni woman and an unknown deity. He looks like a giant cross between _Jeice_ from _Dragonball Z_ and _Jin_ from _Yu Yu Hakusho_. He is True Neutral in alignment. Yahiko suffers from both _kinemortophobia_, (fear of the walking dead {only zombies or liches in his case}), and _seplophobia_ (fear of rot and decay). I have a story in the works with more information on him.

_Kuragari_ - Darkness. The rule books are confusing and contradictory on Vampire Illithids and Intelligence. Most books say they have the intelligence of a cunning animal in the text, then list them as 'Genius' level intelligence in the stats. I suppose they mean that they are so insane that their intelligence score doesn't matter anymore. Kuragari had only an animal level (1) of intelligence. Now he has a very low, but sentient, Intelligence score. Say, 4 or 5. A common troll has an Intelligence score of 6. Kuragari is also True Neutral.

_Geta_ are traditional Japanese sandals with an elevated wooden base.

The _Resurrection_ spell requires diamonds and holy water, but I don't know if a deity would require material components for the spell or not. Either way, he lacks the power to utilize it unless he taps into his patron's power. And, even if he could, it probably wouldn't work on an undead anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

Kuragari

2

Maanzecorian gently lifted the metallic oval relic. He could feel the powerful magic flowing from it, tainted magic, but magic none-the-less. It was an object more of curiosity than power now. Still, it would make a nice addition his vast collection. He could hear scratching sounds from within, as if something were trying to claw its way out. He knew the price Yahiko would ask, and it would be high, but not for Maanzecorian.

"_The Egg of Lolth_. Impressive. A pretty enough bauble, as long as it doesn't burst into a swarm of spiders, of course." He looked at the half-oni, "It will suffice. But I must warn you, you will not like what you will see."

"I rarely do." Yahiko said softly.

"You have no idea." Maanzecorian replied flatly. "Very well, you will see the origins of the one you call _Kuragari_."

And he was there, in a village shrouded in a strangely sinister mist. _Immol_. Barovia. The names came to his mind unbidden. He looked at the house beside him. A child was being born.

Maanzecorian was taking him through his life, from the _very_ beginning.

He watched the child grow. Years passed as moments. Time had no meaning. _Josef_. Tall, handsome, with a winning smile and nimble hands. A clever thief who could charm the jewels off of naive noblewomen and pick the pockets of the most alert of men. He was successful and happy.

His ultimate downfall was his pride and his association with a fool named Krieg and his band of thieves. He should never have listened to them. Even though he had no way of knowing that Lord Strahd von Zarovich was a vampire, only fools and madmen sought to plunder dread Castle Ravenloft. But Krieg was even more charismatic than Josef, and he convinced his band that they would win great fame and glory for their daring.

Who is the greater fool, the fool, or the fool who follows him?

Strahd allowed them to get as far as the feasting hall, a bit of dark humor, before he appeared to them. Then he revealed the true nature of '_The Devil Strahd_', By the time Josef realized the magnitude of his error, the vampire was already at his throat.

Josef awoke to new power and horrible realizations. He was a vampire, and the lord of Barovia was his master. He belonged, body and soul, to the Devil Strahd. He obeyed his master's every command, all of his morality had been stripped away by the shock of his undeath, all of his free-will was crushed beneath his sire's heel.

Strahd was a creature of evil, but his niece, Lyssa, was far, far worse. if Strahd was The Devil, Lyssa was _The Queen of Devils_. She tore him away from his master's control, only to chain him even more tightly. She began taking Strahd's spawn intentionally as a show of contempt for her uncle. She gathered a large number of vampire thralls and led them through the mists into Bluetspur, into _Hell_ itself.

The creatures of Bluetspur were even more terrible than the most monstrous horrors of Barovia. Tentacled demons who tore the brains from their victims' living skulls. And they twisted flesh, oh, the were masters of the art of creating _Broken Ones_. Horrible things of animal and man and aberration. But that was not to be Josef's fate. His was far, far worse. He could not resist the commands of his new mistress. He lay upon the cold slab at her order and wept blood as the worm-like thing crawled into his ear and began gnawing at his brain. After hours of agony, finally, there came blessed release.

Josef, the young thief from Immol, no longer existed.

_Ceremorphosis_, the means by which illithids procreate. Inserting their larva into the skulls of other races, transforming them, physically and mentally, into illithids. Yahiko watched as Josef's body twisted and spasmed and warped beneath the cold white eyes of The High Master Illithid and the heartless gaze of Lyssa von Zarovich. The High Master hoped that he might be able to transfer his mind into the body of an immortal, indestructible vampire illithid. Then, with all the horrible powers at his command, he would destroy his hated lord, The God-Brain of Bluetspur.

The experiment was a failure. All of them were failures. The illithid vampires were incredibly powerful and entirely uncontrollable. They tore apart the illithids and thralls who attempted to restrain them. The High Master and Lyssa were forced to destroy them all, throwing their corpses into the common grave of hundreds of thousands of thralls.

But again they failed. The vampire illithids were not destroyed. They had been created too well, they could not be destroyed. They escaped the pit through the corpse clogged sewer system, driven only by ceaseless hunger and madness. While The High Master attacked his lord and died for his hubris his creations yet lived. Some found their way back into the illithid complex beneath Mount Makab, attacking any who crossed their path, illithid, thrall or broken one. Others roamed the desolate wastes, searching for victims.

Yahiko watched as the creature that had once been known as Josef wandered the bleak and blasted land, and he lost count of the amount of lightning strikes that hit the wretched thing. Eventually the mists surrounded him and he found himself in a new world. His mind was so dim that he only noticed that the lightning no longer fell.

He fell upon any unfortunate enough to cross his path, until he attacked a tall, handsome half-oni who finally managed to reach his broken mind. It was surreal, even compared to all of the horrible things Yahiko had witnessed, to see _himself_, close enough to touch. He watched himself and others training 'Kuragari' in the social graces and teaching him all that his limited mind could hold.

'Kuragari' stood before The Obsidian Throne, dressed in a form-fitting red velvet uniform. He was now the (only) Honor Guard for The Obsidian Palace. A largely ceremonial title, as he had little to guard against. Should the castle actually fall under attack, there was a small standing army to defend it. He 'lived' within the castle, having his own spacious quarters and what little things he desired. He was content and at peace.

"There is an old human saying, my friend," Maanzecorian lay a clawed hand on Yahiko's shoulder, jolting him back to the here and now. "_Be careful what you wish for, as it may just come true_. Now you know the origin of 'Kuragari'."

It was both heartbreaking and horrifying. Yahiko felt warm tears flowing down his cheeks. After several moments, he spoke, hoarse and weary, "The High Master Illithid was destroyed?"

"No, he, like his creations, cannot _truly_ die. He achieved immortality, but at a terrible price. He is trapped forever within the God-Brain, impotent and tormented by his master."

"And Lyssa?"

"She, too, survived. Strahd has poisoned her, however. She will sleep later and later into the night until eventually she will never awaken."

Somehow, neither torment seemed fully appropriate for such fiends

"There is another human saying, '_That which is done cannot be undone_.' Josef is the land of his deity. The creature you called Kuragari is simply that, a _creature_, no trace of the human remains. He is a new and separate entity, you cannot _Raise_ or _Resurrect_ him because this is what he has always been." Maanzecorian tried to sound sympathetic, but it was not an emotion he was truly capable of feeling for 'lesser beings'. He understood its importance, however, and Yahiko appreciated the attempt.

Unlike most of his worshipers, Maanzecorian held no prejudice against the undead, save those alhoons that grew too powerful for his or Ilsensine's comfort. The existence of illithid vampires concerned him only in the threat they posed to living illithids. As Kuragari no longer hungered or fed, he was no threat to anyone. He was also somewhat fond of Yahiko. Despite his ridiculous notions of equality, Yahiko was a man who appreciated the value of knowledge and was willing to sacrifice much to attain it. A rare trait among lesser beings, and an admirable one.

As Yahiko entered The Obsidian Castle, he saw Kuragari standing in the shadows. He opened his mouth, but no words came. What was there to say?

"Are you alright, Yahiko?" The illithid vampire's soft mental voice touched his mind.

"Yes. I'm. . . Just _tired_."

"Then sleep. I will guard you."

Yahiko smiled sadly, "Thank you, Kuragari." He retired to his chamber, and tried to forget.

The End.


End file.
